Inside the Yukon, Hamid jerks at hearing the familiar sound of gunfire, and he turns in his seat, ready to slaughter the American behind him when the word comes, but the American is bent over, seemingly crying and sobbing, and Hamid shouts, “Shut up, you bawling woman!”

He has a pistol on him but is going to go with the folding knife that is now in his hand. A bullet to the American’s head would kill him and be merciful.

Hamid is not going to be merciful.

The little girl is also crying, and Hamid is ignoring her.

Tom Cornwall is bent at the waist, making noises to signal he’s crying and afraid of the gunfire, but he’s been in a number of tight places before, and the gunfire is now just part of the background noise, like the yells and the curses he also hears.

With his hands bound in tape, he is desperately working at his left pant leg, which he manages to drag up, revealing his sock and—

God, yes, the cutting tool.

He tries to work with the tool, cutting and slicing at the tight tape, and he winces as the blade twice cuts into his own skin, but he keeps on working.

The gunfire outside continues.

The bitch was using his father to get to him, Pelayo screams inside, and he opens fire, just as Paco aims at the woman, and there’s an ugly noise of metal being ripped apart, and then there’s a quick “oh” and the side of his face is suddenly soaked, and he spares just the quickest of glances, seeing the pockmarked metal on the Yukon’s hood where the woman opened fire in Paco’s direction.

It looks like four or five rounds worked their way up the metal, until the last bullet took off the top of Paco’s head.

Pelayo fires off two rounds, ducks, and picks up the MP5, rolls to the left, and the woman is advancing, shooting at him, and Pelayo yells out, “Hamid, Hamid, kill him, kill him!”

Hamid hears the blessed words, and he yells, “American, sit up, look at me in the eye!” and yes, the American comes up, but he has something in his hand which whirls toward Hamid, and then his throat is burning, and he tries to yell something again, but his mouth is full of blood and he falls back.